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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. J. STEPHENSON. CABLE GRIP GAR.

No. 403,395. Patented May 14, 1889.

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(NoModeL) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. J. STEPHENSON. CABLE GRIP OAR.

No. 403,395. Patented May 14, 1889.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN STEPHENSON, OF NEWV YORK, N. Y.

CABLE-G RIP CAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 403,395, dated May 14, 1889.

Application filed July 23, 1888 Serial No. 280,631. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN STEPHENSON, a citizen of theUnited States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cable-Grip Cars, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specifica- 'tion.

duced a car with superior facilities for gripping the cable, because the grip is held at invariable elevation, and in its operation is comparatively free from agitations affecting the passengers, because the grip is detached from the car-body and carried by an insulated truck, which, in addition to the grip, bears the wheel-brake and the track-brake, in condition for more speedy operation and efficiency by transferring the cable-grip, wheelbrake, and shoe-brake, and other parts from the car-body to the truck.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a cable-railway car embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a sectional plan on the line 2 2, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an enlarged side view of part of a sill and one of the boxes, saddles, and attachments. Fig. 4 is a side view of the parts shown in Fig. 3.

To illustrate my invention I have shown an open or summer car with side entrances and fender steps, aisle (0, expanded at the middle, forming a central well adapted to accommodate the operator and the hand-levers 150, 46, and 67 of the grip, wheel-brake, and trackbrake, the seats 151, arranged transversely with turn-over backs t', spring-rol1er curtains, and dome-lamps, and the roof bulk-heads with signal-glass. The car-body rests on rubber cushions 152, intervening between the carbody sills 153 and their pedestals. The said pedestals, holding axle-boxes 3, have a swinging link-motion, their spring bearing saddles 180 supporting the car-body, the axle-box shells terminating below in pendants 4, to which are secured the truck sills 5, and springs 160, intervening between-the pedestals and saddles of the axle-boxes.

The car-body of the open or summer car style is but a skeleton without strength suiiicient for the cable service. It has been usual to construct a truss under the body-sills to impart greater strength; but as this would be incompatible with the plan of the car the sills in my improvement are strengthened by metal plates 154, secured to the outer faces of the body-sills.

The car-truck is a structure independent of the car-body, and is designed to take from the body those parts which would encumber it and impede the best action of such parts. It is therefore adapted to receive the grip-carrier, wheel-brake, track -brake, and trackguard.

The grip-carrier with its grip is borne by the truck and provided wi h freedom for h0rizontal motion endwise and transverse, as set forth in a separate application for Letters Patent filed by me.

The wheel-brake mechanism 157 is attached to the sills and sub-sills of the truck, and from the arms of the rock-shaft 37 articulated rods make connection, via a car-body fioor rockshaft, with the hand-lever 46, adapted to receive and transmit the energy of the operator to the wheel-brake.

The track-brake shoe 100 is connected With track-brake mechanism located on the truck beneath the wheel-brake and attached to the truck-sills and sub-sills. An arm of a rockshaft of the track-brake by an articulated rod makes connection, via the car-body floor rockshaft, with the hand-lever 67, adapted to convey the energy of the operator to the trackbrakes.

The track-guard 130 is carried by the truck and crosses the entire width of the track, including the two rails. The nose of the guard may rest close over the slot-rail, with each wing attached jointedly to the end of the truck-sill 5.

If the grip seizes the cable rashly, it causes a jerk, which is unpleasant and injurious, and this is prevented by a spring interposed between the grip and the car-body, whereby the shells pendants carry the truck, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. A car with a truck suspended from the limbs of axle-box shells with swing (link) motion and the car-body resting on cushioned pedestals with springs intervening between the pedestals and the saddles of the axleboxes, substantially as and for the purpose described.

3. A car with truck having its axles journaled outside the wheels and the truck pendent from limbs integral withthe axle-box shells, the car-body resting on cushions upon the pedestals, substantially as and for the purpose described.

4. An open summer-car with its body-sills strengthened with side metal plates in lieu of truss-work beneath the sills and a truck suspended near its four corners by pendants integral with the axle-box shells, substantially as and for the purpose described.

5. A car with its body cushioned on pedestals, with axle-boxes having saddles whose pedals are capable of a swinging motion, carrying springs upholding the car-body, the shells of the axle-boxes terminating downward in pendants, adapted to sustain the cartruck with its appendages, substantially as and for the purpose described.

6. The combination, with a truck-frame carrying the grip mechanism and the wheelbrake and track-brake mechanism, of the car with its floor structure adapted to support transverse benches each side of an aisle expanding in the middle to form a well for the 7. A car with its truck secured to integral limbs pendent from the bottoms of axle-box shells on axle-journals outside the car-wheels, the truck carrying the cable grip, substantially as described.

8. A car with its truck dependent from the limbs integral with the axle-box shells on axle-journals outside the wheels, and in conjunction with the car-body carrying the operating mechanism of the wheel-brakes, substantially as described.

9. A car with its truck dependent from limbs integral with the axle-box shells on journals outside the car-wheels, in conjunction with the car-body carrying the operating mechanism of the track-brake, substantially as described.

10. A car with its truck secured to integral limbs pendent from the bottom of axle-box shells on axle-journals outside the car-wheels, the truck-sills ends extending endward and carrying under the car-body a track-guard adapted to rise and fall without human agencies, as circumstances require, substantially as described.

11. A cable car with its truck borne by the four axle journals outside the wheels, on which axle-journals are axle-boxes having at the bottoms of their shells rigid pendent limbs to which the sills of the cartruck are inflexibly secured, the truck having at its middle a well containing an opening for a grip-carrier, and at each side of the well an opening, each of which is adapted for the location of a wheelbrake and a track-brake, substantially as described.

12. A cable car with its body strengthened by metal plates on the outer sides of the bodysills to which the plates are secured, adapted to stifien the body suflicient to dispense with truss-bracin g beneath the body-sills, substantially as described. 1

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

J OHN STEPHENSON. Witnesses:

STUART A. STEPHENSON, CHARLES E. FOSTER. 

